行政总裁出席香港国际生物科技展致辞 (英文) (2024年9月11日)

Chairman Leung, Professor Yu, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning. It is my great pleasure to attend BIOHK2024, which is well recognised by the market and industry as one of the most significant and inspiring events for Hong Kong's biotech sector. First, let me thank the Hong Kong Biotechnology Organization for their exceptional effort in bringing together an impressive group of experts and participants from around the globe. I note that since its successful inaugural event in 2022, BIOHK has continued to inject new vitality into Hong Kong's biotech ecosystem through exhibitions, forums, one-on-one partnership platforms and different activities.

The HKIC

As Patient Capital, the Hong Kong Investment Corporation Limited ("HKIC") carries with us a dual mandate, namely to seek reasonable financial return over the medium to long term, and more importantly, to enhance the long-term competitiveness and economic vitality of Hong Kong. We are very committed to nurturing New Quality Productive Forces by supporting the development of innovation and technology ("I&T"), strategic industries and their ecosystems in Hong Kong.

As foreshadowed in the Financial Secretary's 2024-25 Budget Speech, the HKIC has been pressing full steam ahead with our mandate. Among other things, we have completed our first batch of direct and co-investments in the first half of this year surrounding three key themes, namely Hard & Core Technology, Biotech and New Energy/Green Technology. More will come.

Our Biotech Journey

Biotech is an area that we have been putting a lot of efforts on. To share as an example, we announced our investment in and partnership with BioMap in June. It is a company with cutting-edge technology in life science artificial intelligence foundation large language model.

This case serves as a good example of the HKIC approach – in Hong Kong and for Hong Kong. As we said when we announced the investment, we want to maximise the strategic benefits that could be brought by each investment or partnership to the Hong Kong economy and society. Therefore, we have been according priority to projects and companies with a Hong Kong origin or nexus. We want them to be successful not only with their own stories. We want them to facilitate the development of other parts of the ecosystem and industry. For instance by supporting the incremental demand in the adjacent or related industries in Hong Kong.

With this mission in mind, we look to leverage on the power of artificial intelligence to accelerate life science discovery by the aforesaid project, which could in turn benefit a wide spectrum of applications ranging from drug discovery, to green technology and agricultural development. Each of our project is much more than a pure-play investment. We also required the company to make commitment to Hong Kong, such as to establish in Hong Kong its international innovation center; to organise in Hong Kong an annual international bio-computing conference; to accord priority for training up young talents in Hong Kong regarding bio-computing and related sectors; and to consider Hong Kong as a priority venue for initial public offering ("IPO").

Currently, we are taking forward many other biotech projects in the HKIC portfolio. These projects cover different aspects of biotech. They could be from or beyond Hong Kong. For instance, some were originated from other parts of the Greater Bay Area or rest of world. Just to herald - we are going to announce another biotech investment which focuses on gene sequencing and exploration of genetic information this Friday, from which you will see the great potential of applying Chinese wisdom and technology for global good.

Hong Kong's Strengths

We are very positive towards the future development of biotech in Hong Kong. There are a few factors which are conducive to the ecosystem. First of all, we literally live and breathe it every day because biotech could directly impact on our health and quality of life. Data shows that in Hong Kong, the number of elderly aged 65 or above is projected to increase from around 20% of the total population in 2021 to around 32% in 2041. This trend speaks for the importance of biotech to us. Every single breakthrough in biotech provides new impetus for innovation and humanity, by way of, for example bringing public good by the development of higher quality drugs, vaccines and treatment at lower costs in the future.

Apart from medical and pharmaceutical advancements which are generally referred to as "red" biotech, the HKIC has been seeing a lot of different projects with the biotech theme. For example, those involving industrial and environmental applications are known as "white" biotech; and those relating to agricultural and food-related uses are known as "green" biotech. The broad application of biotech provides strong tailwind of its market demand and growth potential.

Equally importantly, Hong Kong is well positioned to develop a vibrant and international biotech ecosystem. Currently, Hong Kong is home for over 250 biotech-related companies, the majority of which are healthcare firms involved in pharmaceuticals, traditional Chinese medicine, healthcare products, or medical devices and diagnostics. At the same time, we are also home for top-tier universities. In the latest QS World Universities Rankings, 5 universities from Hong Kong ranked in the top 100. Particularly, The University of Hong Kong and The Chinese University of Hong Kong also ranked high in Asia for "Life Science and Medicine" area. These provide fertile soil for our continued advancement as a differentiating biotech hub.

Needless to say, our Government has also been providing policy support. Among other things, the Financial Secretary announced in his 2024-2025 Budget Speech various initiatives, including HK$6 billion for universities to set up life and health technology research institutes, and HK$200 million to support incubation and acceleration programmes to Hetao start-ups engaging in life and health technology.

Last but not least, as an international financial center, Hong Kong is an ideal place for biotech companies seeking financing to grow. As reported by the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, Hong Kong has emerged as the largest IPO hub for biotech firms in the Asia Pacific region and ranked second globally.

Closing

On the basis of all the above, we are confident that Hong Kong will have a bright future for biotech. In this regard, the HKIC will continue to play our role as part of the Hong Kong team. We will continue to pool relevant resources and stakeholders together, be they from Hong Kong, Mainland or overseas, and to ignite synergy among them for the sake of promoting Hong Kong's biotech ecosystem. We look forward to joining hands with you on investment projects or strategic partnership opportunities to further contribute to Hong Kong's aspiration of becoming an international I&T hub.

Thank you again for having me today, and I wish the event a great success!